The invention relates to a converter plant including a tiltable converter vessel surrounded by a casing on whose ceiling a principal discharge conduit for conducting away refining gases, and a secondary discharge conduit for conducting away the smoke forming during charging and pouring off, respectively, are connected. One side wall of the casing comprises an opening that is closeable by a door.
When operating a converter of a steel-making plant, flue gases escape from the converter mouth during refining, which gases mainly include carbon oxides and FeO-particles carried away therewith. These flue gases, also referred to as principal emissions, have to be purified, and possibly also the energy contained therein has to be regained, before the gases are allowed to be let off into the atmosphere. Also during charging of a converter with scrap and pig iron, and during tapping of the liquid steel into the casting ladle, smoke, which is sometimes heavy, will develop, which smoke is flue gases called additional emissions or secondary flue gases. An even greater nuisance from the development of smoke and fume is caused in steel-making plants with bottomblowing converters, e.g. when carrying out the OBM-method, since the introduction of auxiliary agents into the bottom valves causes spatters in the form of showers of sparks.
In recent times, and in more developed industrial countries, there exist stringent regulations as to the prevention and reduction of the emissions, as well as regulations for improving the safety of the operating personnel. The known installations for conducting away secondary flue gases do not meet these demands. These known arrangements, which are designed as hoods arranged in front of the converter mouth and connected to discharge conduits, are not able to reliably take up the secondary gases.
An arrangement of the initially-defined kind, a so-called "doghouse", has also become known (German Offenlegungsschrift No. 22,33,443) in which a converter of a steel-making plant is installed in a casing that leaves free a sight distance on all sides but which however, allows for tilting movements.
Charging of the converter, in this case, takes place through a charging opening provided in a side wall of the casing, in which opening the lip of a charging ladle or a charging trough are introduceable. During charging, the charging opening remains open, and therefore the noxious substances of the secondary emissions are not prevented from escaping through the charging opening so as to reach the atmosphere and endanger the safety of the personnel. This danger is particularly present with OBM-converters when feeding the bottom valves.